For some consumers, the Internet has replaced traditional media such as newspapers and radio as their primary source of information and entertainment. Accordingly, advertisers have spent increasing amounts of time and money to promote their goods and services online. For example, advertisers have generated various forms of online advertisements to reach consumers: pop-up advertisements that can appear in a separate window when a web browser visits a webpage; banner advertisements that may direct a web browser to an advertising site when a user clicks, for example, on a image associated with the ad; and search advertisements that are displayed with search results, to name a few.
Advertisers can track a variety of attributes (i.e., data) related to advertisements. Of particular interest to advertisers are a number of impressions (i.e., displays) or clicks associated with an advertisement. Impressions, clicks, and other types of advertisement-related data are commonly referred to as advertising events. Advertisers are also interested in business activities that stem from an advertisement. These business activities, referred to as conversions, can include an action that an advertiser wants a consumer to perform, e.g., a product purchase or website registration. Data associated with business activities is generally referred to as a conversion event.
To increase the return on their advertising outlays, advertisers try to determine how likely an advertisement is to result in a conversion. For example, a consumer may encounter numerous search and banner advertisements promoting a product before deciding to purchase the product. It may be unclear to an advertiser how heavily each advertisement influenced the consumer's purchase decision.